Miami mayoral candidate Xavier Suarez says he’ll be ‘a micromanager’; former Commissioner Ken Russell aims to fight corruption

It s almost time for Miami voters to voice their choice for mayor and two contenders stated their event as to why they re the right person to lead the Magic City Miami s mayoral race is one of the most of competitive in South Florida during this voting cycle Voters will head to the polls starting this weekend to elect their next mayor One of the candidates Xavier Suarez has had the job before He declared that experience will help him if he s elected again As one of my ads says I m the old sheriff that s back and I m the new sheriff he explained I m pretty tough I can put my foot down if they get out of hand Suarez whose son Francis is the current mayor of Miami served two terms in the mayor s office years ago Suarez disclosed he wants to cut costs and make use of city staff with a goal of saving the taxpayers money i ll be a micromanager and don t hire too multiple consultants folks he disclosed We have a good staff employeesm and we should do things in-house Suarez stated his experience in the mayor s office as the city s first Cuban born mayor along with his nine years of facility on the Miami-Dade County Commission give him the knowledge he necessities to have the job again Property tax restructuring is extremely vital and attention to the neighborhoods that s also my slogan I m a mayor for all the neighborhoods he explained Former Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell s political career started in Merrie Christmas Park after he discovered it was contaminated around years ago He declared the city wasn t doing anything about it So I organized my neighborhood We went to City Hall and we pushed the city to clean up our park he reported I located out there were five other contaminated parks and I decided to run for office in the City of Miami I became the local commissioner and I wrote all of the environmental laws that we have now that protect our trees and water and air Russell served on the city commission from to Now he wants to focus on affordablity while also changing the city s heritage Miami s really hurting There s a lot of frustration people are having trouble affording the rent or the mortgage he commented What I say is that we can t afford the corruption and that s the hardest thing to change It s a systemic change that requirements to happen in the City of Miami so that the old dynasties move out and new blood comes in Russell hopes he can be that fresh blood in the mayor s office The systemic revolving door is inherent to our charter our constitution because we don t have real term limits he reported so when I m on the ballot next month on the ballot with me will be real term limits so I hope that people come and vote for that as well as me News had hoped to also interview candidate Alex Diaz de la Portilla for this story but he canceled four separate scheduled interviews before our deadline Early voting for Miami residents begins Saturday Voting Day is Nov